Texas Vet Gets License Suspended After Bragging About Shooting A Cat With A Bow And Arrow

Alexa Lyons

Facebook

Kristen Lindsey had her veterinary license suspended for a year after she killed a neighbor’s cat with a bow and arrow and posted the photos online. In the below Facebook screenshot, Lindsey can be seen boasting about her “accomplishment,” holding up the cat (which was named Tiger) by a bow that pierced right through his head after he reportedly wandered into her home.

“My first bow kill… lol,” she wrote. “The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it’s [sic] head. Vet of the year award… gladly accepted.” After she posted it online, Lindsey received a ton of death and rape threats from angry viewers.

Check out the photo below, but be warned, it’s pretty graphic.

Once the photo made its rounds, Lindsey was fired from the Brenham Animal Clinic where she worked and was judged by the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, who said that she was cruel to the animal. In response, she was banned from practicing for a year and will be on four years probation following her suspension. But despite the reprimanding, animal rights activists slammed the decision, claiming it was too lenient.

“This slap on the wrist pales in comparison to the egregious felony cruelty that Ms. Lindsey committed against a defenseless cat,” the Animal Legal Defense Fund said in a statement. “Allowing Ms. Lindsey to continue to practice veterinary medicine in the future puts animals in the community at great risk, and taints the good name of the trusted veterinary profession.”

But her lawyer, Brian Bishop, claimed that Lindsey’s decision was not made in malice. He says that she believed the cat was feral, and according to the Daily Mail, it’s not unusual for people in her hometown to kill such animals. He also said that while she shouldn’t have posted the image to social media, she did not act with “criminal recklessness,” and that a suspension from working would be tough considering she has $150,000 in school loans.

“This case would never have gone forward but for the fact that we live in a social media age,” Bishop said. Ok true… but that still doesn’t make her initial decision the right one. Her former employer seems to agree.

“We are absolutely appalled, shocked, upset, and disgusted by the conduct,” the group wrote in a Facebook post after the photo went viral. “We have parted ways with Ms. Lindsey. We do not allow such conduct and we condemn it in the strongest possible manner,” the clinic said in the statement.

Lindsey has since deleted her Facebook page and a grand jury ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge her with animal cruelty.